March 17, 2008

St. Patrick's Day present

Here's a band I'll bet you never heard of. I first heard the Drovers in (of all places) the Principality of Monaco, where they were the house band for the international James Joyce Symposium maybe eighteen (!) years ago. They rocked. I saw them a couple of years later at Stache's, where many great bands played, including Buckwheat Zydeco and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. And of course the (original) Elmers, but only on open mic night!

Stache's is no more, but the Principality of Monaco is still hanging on there. Both places were startlingly small. And both places were rocked, briefly, by the Drovers. There's a generous amount of their music available for free download at their website. They flirted with fame and appeared in a couple of films, Blink and Backdraft. If I recall correctly, they were the highlights of both films.

Check out "Juliette" if you get a chance. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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